The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Anima, Silueta de Cohetes (Firework Piece)

Anima, Silueta de Cohetes (Firework Piece)

1976
(American, b. Cuba, 1948–1985)
America
Super-8mm film transferred to high-definition digital media, color, silent, 2:23 minutes
Dorothea Wright Hamilton Fund 2020.263
© The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Mendieta created nearly 80 films in her Silueta series between 1973 and 1985, making her one of the most prolific artists to take up the medium at this time.

Description

In this work, Ana Mendieta creates a monumental female figure from lit fireworks, and she films the burning silhouette until it extinguishes. Combining elements of performance, installation art, video, and photography, this "earth body" work, as the artist describes it, is part of Mendieta's Silueta series. The Siluetas were groundbreaking contributions to the Land Art movement, largely dominated by male artists. As the film opens, the dark night is broken by a series of small explosions that form the silhouette and burn out slowly. The imagery is a metaphor for the passage of time and self-transformation, deeply personal themes for the artist.
  • 2020
    (Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2020-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Camnitzer, Luis. "Ana Mendieta." Third Text, 3, no. 7 (1989): 47-52.
    Rauch, Heidi and Federico Suro. "Ana Mendieta's Primal Scream." Américas 44, no. 5 (Sept-Oct 1992): 44-48.
    Best, Susan. "The serial spaces of Ana Mendieta." Art History 30, no.1 (2007): 57-82.
    Lukkas, Lynn, Howard Oransky, and Ana Mendieta. Covered in Time and History: The Films of Ana Mendieta. Minneapolis, MN: Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota, in association with University of California Press, 2015.
  • Ana Mendieta: Anima, Silueta de Cohetes (Firework Piece). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 6, 2022-April 9, 2023).
    Contemporary Gallery Reinstallation 2021. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
  • {{cite web|title=Anima, Silueta de Cohetes (Firework Piece)|url=false|author=Ana Mendieta|year=1976|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.263